To the pole, to the pole, to the pole…!
Satellite phone rang – the news was told. Excited participants told about their impressions. One could feel that there were no words to describe their emotions.
Barneo airfield. The block of ice was searched from space. It had to be thick enough for taking off and landing of a plane with equipment. It had to be convenient for us to reach geographical spot of the North Pole from it. “Our block of ice was of minimal thickness – only 60 centimeters. Our “Annushka” landed on ice as if on a water mattress. Then we experienced 40 minutes of fuss, anxiety, habituation and complete stupefaction. Many of us just could not utter a word, listening to the Arctic silence, realizing once again all the storm of emotions inside them”, said over the telephone Alexey Shaburov, author of the project.
Barneo station is a small patch of civilization: it consists of ten multi-colored tents, barrel with fuel, homemade columns with Arctic maps. Barneo looks like a tiny anthill. Here you can find tourists from any countries – France, Belgium, Great Britain. The plane with Germans and French has just flew away. At this plot of land you realize the meaning of such trite and complicated words like world, friendship, peaceful neighborhood of people of all countries, races and religions.
“Tea, coffee are free of charge, T-shirts cost 25 EURO”, Sergey Muench, Director General of MVK Messen has learned prices for local souvenirs. At Barneo everything is almost like in a 5 star hotel, all-inclusive: three time meal and round-the-clock bar. Almost everything … The toilet is the same as at the Red square: plastic and without heating. Inside the tents there are camp beds and downy sleeping bags.
“Our block of ice is drifting towards the Russian coast at the speed of 1 kilometer per hour. The temperature at the Pole is only 18 degrees below zero – we re lucky. The usual April temperature for these places is between 20 and 35 degrees below zero. The sky is clear and amazingly blue. You do not feel tired when walking down the gangway. You are not sleepy”, - Alexey Shaburov, the author of the project, is in good mood, - “Impressions are striking!” And all this despite 18 hours without rest form the moment of getting up.
Russians, who were loading some cases in helicopter and excitedly discussing something, waving their hands, attracted attention of all the international company. French, Belgians, Englishmen and even Japanese were curious about what merry Russian speaking people were loading in helicopter. It turned out to be a valuable cargo: exhibits of the polar museum and two tents: the exact replica of Papanin’s tent and the tent, painted in colours of the Russian flag.
Landing in helicopter and departure to the North Pole on April 24 at about 12 am Moscow time.
Geographical poles – points of intersection of imaginary Earth′s revolution axis with Earth surface; Earth meridians meet at geographical Poles, at geographical Poles there are no terrestrial longitude, no usual horizon sides. Geographical Poles – spots of Earth surface that do not take part in its twenty-four-hour revolution. (Big Soviet Encyclopedia)
The helicopter took off the land, precisely, it took off the ice. At about 1 am participants started to look for the place, where they could indicate the North Pole. The pole is just a geographical spot, but it has to be checked every time. That’s why there is always a new place for putting symbolic polar column on the ice territory. And MVK indicated its own North Pole. Our flags – Russian flag and MVK flag are the brightest decoration of Earth fridge for several kilometers around.
The next phone call was received from the expedition at 1.30 am. Now one can surely say that MVK expedition conquered the top of the world and fulfilled the programme of the flight. MVK opened the first in the world historical and patriotic exhibition at the North Pole – mobile polar museum “Role of HISTORU in life and business”, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of two heroic expeditions: the first drifting Soviet polar station SP-1 under the guidance of I.D. Papanin and flights of V.P. Chkalov’s and M.M. Gromov’s crews over the North Pole.
